


Unless You Get Through Me

by TheRealAnnabelLee



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, am i projecting? probably, i just want tim and damian to become friends slow burn, whatever canon i took from comics idk man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21602845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRealAnnabelLee/pseuds/TheRealAnnabelLee
Summary: Tim had a secret. Well, Tim had many secrets, most having to do with his second (and more dangerous) life. But oddly enough his largest secret wasn’t his identity or whether his utility belt was actually a pocket dimension. Tim’s largest and best-kept secret was his family.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Damian Wayne
Comments: 15
Kudos: 160





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my very first fic that I'm publishing and yes its 2 am and yes I have finals next week but gosh darn it we're doing this. I have a much larger plot line planned out and hopefully I'll finish the next chapter (relatively) soon. Also what is formatting? Who knows? Not me.

Tim had a secret. Well, Tim had many secrets, most having to do with his second (and more dangerous) life. But oddly enough his largest secret wasn’t his identity or whether his utility belt was actually a pocket dimension. Tim’s largest and best-kept secret was his family.

How his family of eight was still more closely guarded intel than most of what happened in the Pentagon, he would never know. He was the third Robin and there were at least as many Batgirls and somehow no one had ever connected that they might all be related or consider themselves family. Conveniently, there had never been any overlap in Batman’s partners so there was really no way for Gothamites to tell if they knew each other and since no villain had ever taken advantage of how much the siblings cared for each other (although they might not show it conventionally), the family intended to keep it that way.

But sometimes his brothers made it incredibly difficult for Tim to keep up his mask of indifference or ignorance towards them.

Tim could only watch as Nightwing and Robin flipped across the TV screen, trying to evade what could only be described as an absurd number of assassins. His breath caught in his throat when he saw an assassin get lucky and Robin stumble; he could only breathe again once Robin twirled back towards Nightwing, seemingly still in one piece.

Tim glanced around quickly to make sure none of his team had noticed his reaction. According to Batman’s protocol, Red Robin and the rest of the Gotham vigilantes can only be seen together in the direst of scenarios (see: hundreds of ninjas invading the busiest sector of Gotham or a Justice League all hands on deck mission) and even then they “must maintain a professional relationship,” which in Bat-speak means acting like your brother is basically a stranger and someone you definitely do not live with. In which case, Tim should hardly be more concerned over the safety of Robin than any other hero and definitely should not be so concerned that he forgot how to breathe for a few seconds. Besides, even Robin himself would make fun of Tim for that. He could practically hear Robin saying “Unlike you, I’m far too talented to be taken down by such a group of imbeciles, Drake”.

After Tim was sure no one had noticed his brief lapse, he went back to watching the fight. Nightwing and Robin were surrounded by at least twenty enemies, but Tim knew that they could handle it easily. He’d seen them do it before. The tricky part about this fight, Tim thought, was how thoroughly they had to hide their fighting styles.

Damian and Dick, Nightwing and Robin, and at one point Batman and Robin, have worked together as partners for so many years that fighting together comes as naturally to them as breathing. When not in the public eye, the two mesh so well together that it looks like a dance. Tim watches as, most likely without even thinking, Robin ducks and takes out two ninjas with a kick to their feet while Nightwing flips above him, covering his back and taking out three more ninjas with his escrima sticks. Tim also sees the moment they realize that their fighting has become too coordinated and split back apart, wading through the sea of enemies in different directions.

Kon whistled under his breath, “Gotham’s crazy, man. You would think there would be less ninjas in Jersey.”

Tim snorted, “Yeah, you would think, but it makes it easier sometimes.”

Cassie turned to look at Tim, her brows slightly furrowed, “Easier for what?”

Tim smirked in reply, “For me to shift some of their schedules around by two hours and inconvenience them. It pisses off their leader and it’s hilarious.”

Kon and Bart burst into laughter, but Cassie just shook her head in despair, “Red, are you sure you should be angering the scary ninja clan on purpose?”

Tim shrugged, “Ah, it’s fine. They haven’t been able to send anything w-, uh, I can't handle yet. Oh, and nothing they couldn’t handle either it seems.”

On screen, Nightwing and Robin had just taken out the last ninja and the Gotham police were beginning to herd them into cop cars for interrogations that Tim knew would reveal nothing. 

“Wow,” Bart sighed, “I wonder what it would be like to work with them. I mean, they’re two of the most iconic superheroes in Gotham, no offense Red, and they never work with anyone. I mean besides Batman. And Nightwing works with Wally sometimes. And-”

“Ok Bart, we get it, you think I’m the lamest Gotham hero, you don’t have to rub it in,” Tim shook his head in fake despair while Bart tried to backtrack.

“Aww RR, you know we love you the most. But even you have to admit they’re super cool after they beat like a bajillion ninjas all by themselves.”

Tim snorted at that because there was no way that Oracle wasn’t helping them from their earpieces. But Tim didn’t need to ruin how “Nightwing for sure having night vision or like, at least weirdly good eyes” was actually Barbara hacking every camera in Gotham instead for Bart.

“Well as nice as that is to hear, I still have work to do tonight, so I’ll see you all soon,” Tim decided this was probably the best time to leave to make it home to the Cave before Nightwing and Robin made it back and took all of B’s attention before Tim could update him on the team’s latest mission.

And with a chorus of goodbyes from Cassie, Bart, and Kon behind him, Tim took off for the Batcave, mentally preparing for whatever chaos was happening with the family that night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just relatable family chaos, lads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so it turns out that going to a STEM university does not leave much time for writing and also still gives homework during a quarantine so it did actually take me like four months to write this and I'm hopeful the next chapter won't take me quite that long. But we finally did it so please enjoy!

Tim walked down in the cave, silently hoping for a quiet night ahead. But alas, it was not to be. He heard Stephanie before he saw her, catching the tail end of her shouting “-no respect in this entire goddamn family!”

Tim walked quietly (and hopefully stealthily enough to avoid Stephanie’s rage) over to a corner where he saw Jason looking on in what seemed to be a mixture of horror and amusement. From this angle Tim could perfectly see Stephanie in her Batgirl uniform, hands on her hips, staring defiantly at both Bruce and Damian. Tim leaned over and whispered to Jason, “Who decided it was a good idea to piss off Steph? Especially now.” She had been complaining for days about how much homework she had this week on top of two exams so whoever annoyed her really should have known better.

Jason whispered back, “Damian took apart her grapple in order to make a toy for Titus and now Bruce is trying to defend him. Which was, as you can see, a poor choice.”

Tim’s eyes widened, “This wouldn’t happen to be Steph’s grapple she got so attached to that she named it and takes on every patrol, would it?”

“That would be the one,” Jason smirked.

“Shit,” Tim leaned back against the wall to watch Stephanie verbally destroy Batman and Robin. The grapple was actually the one she used on her first night as Batgirl. That night, Tim wasn’t entirely sure what happened, but Steph came home looking either extremely proud or extremely smug about something and declared that the grapple was going to be “her good-luck charm for, like, minimum five years.”

Tim recognizes the exact moment when Bruce realizes that yes, Damian took _that_ grapple, when Bruce slightly shifts his posture and tightens his mouth.

“Damian,” Bruce growled, “Did you take apart the grapple that Stephanie has used every patrol for two years?”

“She can simply pick a new one,” Damian sniffed, “I don’t understand the significance.”

“It was Barbara’s old grapple, idiot,” Steph looked close to tears at this point, “It was supposed to be symbolic of her approval of me or whatever, but it’s fine, I’ll be _fine_ ,” she wiped her eyes and took a deep breath and Tim thought she was just pulling herself together, but when she turned back to Damian her expression was downright terrifying. Her eyes blazed with a righteous fury as she declared, “But just know this now, you little gremlin. I _will_ have my revenge and it will come when you least expect it.”

And with that, Stephanie got on her motorcycle and sped out of the Batcave, leaving Damian staring at her retreating figure.

Jason leaned over to whisper to Tim, “You know she’s really gotten better at the dramatic exits. Especially with that cape.”

Tim couldn’t help but nod and agree, even he was slightly intimidated after that exchange. Then again, Tim had been the one on the receiving end of most of Stephanie’s revenge plots and knew exactly how...creative she could be when she set her mind to it.

Looking back at Bruce, he saw what, to an average person, would look to be a perfectly composed Bruce Wayne, silently and logically contemplating what the consequences of Damian’s actions would be. What Tim saw in Bruce’s expression was far different. He saw the carefully controlled anger in Bruce’s tightened lips and the sequence of events he knew would follow if Tim didn’t do something: Bruce threatening, Damian overreacting, and the whole family being thrown into chaos for at minimum a week before some crisis eventually made everyone suck it up and speak to each other again. So after these truly horrifying scenarios flashed through his brain, Tim decided he didn’t want to live through a week of passive aggressive Damian behavior when he knew he didn’t have any missions scheduled outside Gotham for the foreseeable future. Glancing to the side, he saw Jason had reached the same conclusion and was looking appropriately panicked.

Before Bruce could get a word out, Tim spoke up, “Damian, could you show me the parts of Stephanie’s grapple you still have? I might be able to put it back together.”

Damian glared at him, “I’m not sure that’s necessary, Drake, it will be perfectly fine as a toy for-”

Jason gave Damian a look that said, _if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go along with this_ and said, “Just go show him the parts, brat.”

“Very well, Todd,” Damian started walking towards a workbench in the cave, luckily away from Bruce and Tim quickly followed, eager to diffuse the situation as soon as possible.

“I do not require assistance,” Damian hissed to Tim once they reached the bench. He looked disgusted at the very idea of getting help and Tim could hear the _especially from you, Drake_ , that Damian hadn’t needed to say out loud.

“Yeah, well, I’m only doing this so Bruce isn’t weird and broody this week. I don’t need to deal with soap-opera level family drama while I’m actually at home.”

Tim started to look over the damage Damian had done to the grapple and though it was mostly taken apart, it looked like enough parts were left to fix it. Or at least fix it well enough to appease Steph. Maybe. Tim started fiddling with the pieces and listening to what he assumed was Jason trying to stall Bruce from exploding long enough for Dick to get there and take over the situation.

It didn’t take to long for Dick to enter the cave with a cheery, “And how is my beautiful family doing on this fine evening?” which was definitely for the best because Tim could only listen to Jason try to talk with Bruce about his ongoing cases for so long without absolutely drowning in secondhand embarrassment. 

Tim saw Dick quickly realize something was off, helped by Jason shooting him the specific panicked look everyone shared when dealing with what they called “Bruce being about three seconds from making an absolutely chaotic decision that won’t help anyone”. Maybe this would come as a surprise to anyone not in their family and didn’t know Bruce, but this look was used fairly frequently. Tim guessed they used it at least once every other month and even more during an Arkham breakout or any sort of capital-c Crisis event.

With Bruce now fully occupied with the combined efforts of both Dick and Jason trying to convince him to patrol with them, Dick’s go-to and usually most effective distraction strategy, Tim saw an opening and whispered to Damian who had been pretending to help Tim.

“Alright demon child, if you want to go patrol tonight this is probably our best chance at leaving without B noticing,” and together the boys put down the grapple parts and snuck over to their respective cycles.

Bruce had his back turned to them as they both sped out into the night, Tim desperately hoping that Robin’s patrol route tonight wouldn’t overlap with anyone and cause any more drama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave some comments if you're comfortable doing so! It's a real good serotonin boost and actually motivates me to update. You can also chat with me on tumblr at https://therealannabellee.tumblr.com/ if you want!

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you thought if you would be so kind. You can also chat with me on tumblr at https://therealannabellee.tumblr.com/ if you want.


End file.
